Lotus Cup Europe - Lotus Festival 2013

Monday, August 26, 2013 - 12:30

Walker takes a commanding double at Lotus Festival

Jon Walker charged to a brace of victories as Lotus Cup Europe’s penultimate round played out to a crowd of Lotus owners and fans at the annual Lotus Festival.With the Lotus Cup UK and Elise Trophy series also on the bill, along with Formula 1 demonstrations and a Lotus Cortina 50th anniversary race, several UK drivers also took part. This included Andrew Bentley, who starred in a Lotus Evora that started from the back of the grid in both contests.

However it was not enough to defeat Walker, who maintained a steady gap to the rest and was able to pull away at will. Christophe Lisandre starred in qualifying but was unable to resist the V6 cars of Greg Rasse and Nikolaj Ipsen. Meanwhile Jeremy Lourenco and John Rasse, driving Xavier Georges 2-Eleven for the weekend, both featured well in the opening encounter.

Bentley took a top ten finish in the opening encounter but it was race two that showed his mettle. Despite recovering from a broken wrist, he jumped straight out of his race-winning Elise Trophy car and into the Evora at the opposite end of the grid. In the top ten within a few minutes of the start, he was second by mid-distance and gave Walker cause to increase his pace.

The Production class battle was fought between pace-setter Thomas Dehaibe and Britain’s Charlotte Burridge. Dehaibe was the winner on the road in both races, but had passed under a yellow flag in the opening encounter, so Burridge took the spoils.

Jon Walker took two commanding wins in Lotus Cup Europe this weekend

Greg Rasse and Nikolaj Ipsen fought over the podium positions

Wild card Andrew Bentley starred in the races

The Classic Team Lotus-run 1982 Lotus 91 was demonstrated at the event